Talented sprinter Shamal Wind impressed trainer Robert Smerdon with her performance in a barrier trial at Cranbourne this morning as she continues to build towards a trip to the England for the 2015 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot in June.
Shamal Wind stormed home late to record an impressive victory in the 2015 Oakleigh Plate. Photo by: Sarah Ebbett
Shamal Wind contested the opening barrier trial of the morning at Cranbourne over 800 metres and she was kept under a heavy hold throughout by jockey Jackie Beriman, but she was still able to hit the line strongly to finish seventh behind Robbie Laing-trained Sinhala.
Shamal Wind was making her first public appearance since she recorded a maiden win at the highest level of racing in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate (1100m) at Caulfield on February 28 and Smerdon told Racing.com that he was happy with the way that the Dubawi mare performed in the barrier trial.
The talented mare will make the trip to the United Kingdom on June 4th to contest the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes (1006m) at Royal Ascot on June 16 and Smerdon said that he plans to have the five-year-old ready to race when she steps on the plane.
“She was here for a bit of a day out really without being fully extended, so to do what she did was pleasing,” Smerdon said.
“The rest of this month will be the build-up to have her as fit as we can before she leaves, so that once we arrive we don’t have to do too much with her and just maintain her and maybe have one or two run-ups before the race day.
“She is terrific and she is in really good shape.
“She has a great constitution, which makes the job easier because she has the capacity to deal with the workload and a great mental approach as well.
“She is pretty bombproof.”
Shamal Wind has been a consistent performer at Stakes level since she made he racing debut in October of 2012, but she went to another level during her brief 2015 Melbourne Festival Of Racing campaign.
The Love Racing-owned mare performed well without winning during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival, but she returned to racing with a Listed W.J. Adams Stakes (1000m) at Sandown on Australia Day before she worked home strongly from the tail of the field to beat stablemate Under The Louvre and Fast ‘N’ Rocking in the Oakleigh Plate.
Shamal Wind is currently available at 2015 King’s Stand Stakes odds of $7 and she is on the third line of betting behind Sole Power ($5) and Brazen Beau ($6).
